Long On Optimism After Coming Up A Yard Short

But Titans coach Jeff Fisher is convinced time and distance will not conspire to destroy his team's opportunities to return and win the big game.

"I just told the team that we didn't fail. Failure is just success put on hold. And we just put things on hold for a year," Fisher said after an emotional 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams in the Georgia Dome.

"We will be judged on how we come back next year."

On the game's final play with six seconds left, Kevin Dyson caught Steve McNair's pass at the Rams' 5-yard line. He scrambled for the end zone, only to be stopped just short by linebacker Mike Jones, holding the ball in his outstretched hand toward the goal line in vain.

"It's sad," said McNair, who completed 22 of 36 passes for 214 yards. "You come that close and you play such a great game and then all of a sudden you come up short. The guy [Jones] made a good play.

"This is not a loss for us," McNair said. "This is something we can build on, and we will be back."

McNair also rushed eight times for 64 yards, a Super Bowl record for quarterbacks.

Said Fisher: "We are a football team that has been doubted for a lot of years. We thought we could do it, and we came about six inches from having a chance of doing it tonight."

Kurt Warner's 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1 minute 54 seconds left gave the Rams a 23-16 lead after Tennessee's Al Del Greco tied the game 16-16 on a 43-yard field goal with 2:12 remaining.

"It was a great throw and catch," Fisher said of Warner's bomb. "Samari [Rolle] usually makes those plays. He lost the ball and got tripped up. The Rams have done that all year.... Congratulations to them."

The Titans' secondary was weakened by the loss of safety Marcus Robertson, who broke his leg in the AFC Championship game and was replaced by Anthony Dorsett. And strong safety Blaine Bishop suffered a third-quarter neck injury that forced backup Perry Phenix into action.

"As much as this hurts and as disappointing as this is for us, I believe we have an awful lot to be proud of," Fisher said. "There is a difference between nowhere and being somewhere. And we made it to somewhere today."

McNair said the pass play is called "a sliver," and that was the margin of defeat his team experienced.

"Steve has had a great year," Fisher said. "He led this team to the Super Bowl level with the rest of his teammates. I believe you saw the real Steve McNair tonight. He left it on the field. I told him we will be back and never forget this moment. He has the heart of a champion. I am proud to coach a team that he is a part of."

The Rams dominated the first half but had to settle for three Jeff Wilkins field goals to take a 9-0 lead before finally scoring a touchdown.

"We wanted to hold them to threes. We thought it was important," Fisher said.

St. Louis took an apparently comfortable 16-0 lead when Warner threw a 9-yard TD pass to Torry Holt with 7:20 of the third quarter. But the Titans' offense became energized and the St. Louis defense began to wear down behind the running of Eddie George and quick short passes from McNair.

"It was momentum," Fisher said. "We made our minds up at halftime that we were going to win this ballgame."

Tennessee scored on its next two possessions, on runs of 1 and 2 yards by George, to make it 16-13 with 7:21 left in the game. It would have been 16-14, but the Titans chose to go for two points on their first TD and failed.

Then Del Greco's 43-yard field goal tied it.

"We did everything we could to give ourselves a chance to win," Fisher said. "Our defense caught their breath at halftime. We were on the field the whole first half. We made some adjustments, we tightened down coverage, we challenged the receivers. We challenged our secondary and they said: `Bring it on.' That was the difference."

The Titans were only the sixth wild-card team to advance to the Super Bowl.